


another man's come-up

by keptein



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-29
Updated: 2017-03-29
Packaged: 2018-10-12 16:21:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10494786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keptein/pseuds/keptein
Summary: Tetsurou’s bag hangs heavy from his shoulder, and he pushes open the door to the charity shop with some effort. It's cramped, racks of clothes imposing from all angles, but it's easy enough to weave his way through the shelves and knick knacks to the counter, all the way at the back of the shop. There's a few customers around, as far as Tetsurou can see, but it's hard to spot anyone through the thick foliage of things - books, jackets, backpacks, jewelry, cutlery, garbage bins, it seems like everything in the world has somehow been crammed into this shop, which Tetsurou walks by every day on his way to class but has never entered before.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [algebraicmutiny](https://archiveofourown.org/users/algebraicmutiny/gifts).



> it's your boy, back at it again with the bokuroo. this was commissioned by algebraicmutiny, thank you so much! my commission detail are on my blog. and yes, the title is from thrift shop. we all have our flaws.

Tetsurou’s bag hangs heavy from his shoulder, and he pushes open the door to the charity shop with some effort. It's cramped, racks of clothes imposing from all angles, but it's easy enough to weave his way through the shelves and knick knacks to the counter, all the way at the back of the shop. There's a few customers around, as far as Tetsurou can see, but it's hard to spot anyone through the thick foliage of things - books, jackets, backpacks, jewelry, cutlery, garbage bins, it seems like everything in the world has somehow been crammed into this shop, which Tetsurou walks by every day on his way to class but has never entered before.

“Hi!” The guy behind the counter looks like a delinquent. His head is shaved, and he's got a strong brow and broad shoulders, but his posture is open and customer friendly. “What can I do for you today?”

“I have these,” Tetsurou says, lifting up his bag and letting it fall onto the counter with a thud. “Books. You take university books, right?”

“We sure do,” the guy says jovially. “Have you donated stuff to us before?”

“No,” Tetsurou says, and at the same time, a loud crash sounds from a corner of the store - like a lot of items being knocked over - and someone yells,

“Tanaka! Get over here, I need your help!”

“Uh - okay, sorry, just a minute,” the guy says, already starting to move towards the noise and ringing a bell beside the register. “My colleague will be with you in a sec!”

Tetsurou sighs. “Sweet,” he says, but Tanaka’s already hard to spot beyond the racks. Tetsurou drums his fingers along the counter, shifting his weight.

Then there is another loud noise, and someone comes out of the back room. His hair is wild and unruly, just like his expresion, and there are several bands of measuring tape wrapped around his neck. “Hello! I’m sorry! How can I help?”

He has amber eyes, and his hands look strong and capable. He’s quirky-looking, a little like the other guy, but somehow he’s still really, really,  _ really, really hot. _ “I’m gay,” Tetsurou blurts, then hurries to add, “I mean - I mean,  _ hey, _ uh, I have - I have books.”

“Oh, great!” The guy beams, pleased. He seems to not have noticed Tetsurou’s embarrassing blunder, which is what’s best for everyone. “Show me what you’ve got, friend!”

“Sure,” Tetsurou says awkwardly, lifting his bag and pulling the books out onto the counter. The guy oohs and ahs over them, checking their condition.

“You study some difficult stuff, huh?”

Tetsurou looks at his biology books and shrugs. “They’re required reading.” Somehow, he doubts that bragging about the difficulty of his degree would get him anywhere with this guy. “You’ll take them, or?”

“Of course we’ll take ‘em!” The guy beams at him again. His smile is infectious, and Tetsurou finds himself smiling back. “We can give you money for it, or would you like store credit? With store credit, you get more, and -” the guy leans forward, as if to whisper - “we get really nice things in, I promise.”

Tetsurou leans in automatically. “I was just going to donate,” he replies. “I don’t need anything back.”

The guy clicks his tongue, disapproving. “Nonsense! You’re a student, right? Here…” He takes a piece of paper, scribbling out a note and signing it. “You get one item free, whatever you want, whenever you want! And If I’m not in, just say Bokuto promised you, and show them this.”

Tetsurou takes the piece of paper, dumbfounded. “You’re Bokuto?”

The guy - Bokuto - nods, and grins again. “That’s me. I own this place!”

“You’re pretty young to be a store owner,” Tetsurou says, surprised.

Bokuto shrugs. “I inherited it. Kinda. Long story. Anyway, do you need any more help? Do you wanna know more about our charity?”

Tetsurou looks around. He doesn’t want to keep Bokuto from doing anything, and there are a few other customers milling around. Tanaka is visible now, and he’s got a shorter guy with hair just as spiky on his shoulders, helping him reach something on a high shelf. “I’m okay,” he decides, looking back at Bokuto. “Thank you, though. I’ll be sure to come back if I have more stuff to donate.”

“Or to buy stuff!” Bokuto adds, but he doesn’t seem offended, still smiling. “I’m here most days, so I hope to see you again!”

“You too,” Tetsurou says, giving him a shabby salute before retreating out the door, embarrassed and intrigued.

*

It’s not that he can’t stop thinking about Bokuto. He can, in fact, very easily stop thinking about Bokuto, and after that encounter, he goes several days without thinking about him. So it’s not that, definitely, it’s just that Tetsurou doesn’t often meet guys his age who run charity shops and have nice hands and eyes, and he said Tetsurou could get any item for free, but that probably didn’t include himself.

He looks through the rest of his tiny apartment for more stuff to donate. It seems rude to come back for his free item so soon, so it’s more natural that he goes to donate again. He has some shirts he never wears anymore, and a couple of musty sneakers, and some books he’s been given for his birthday over the years. He never got around to reading them, but donating them to a better cause seems like a much better option than letting them rot on his shelf.

This time, the charity shop is busier. Tetsurou treks in with his two bags’ worth of donations, navigating carefully to the counter at the back before he notices that there’s no spiky, white hair in sight. “Hello,” he says politely to the girl standing there.

“Oh! Hi.” She looks up, smiling, and she’s very beautiful too. Tetsurou takes a moment to curse Bokuto’s hiring process, then to curse Bokuto himself. “Can I help you?”

“I…” he trails off. Asking for Bokuto after one meeting is definitely inappropriate. Especially when that meeting was purely professional. “I have stuff to donate.”

She claps her hands together enthusiastically. “Wonderful! Let me help you with those…” she comes around the corner, taking the bags off him. “Thank you so much.”

Tetsurou waits for the offer of reimbursement, but she only blinks at him, keeping her kind smile. “Ah - anyway,” he says awkwardly. “I’ll be off then.”

“Feel free to have a look around!” she calls after him, voice bright, but Tetsurou hurries out the door as quickly as possible.

*

A couple of weeks pass without Tetsurou stepping foot into the charity shop, although he has a vague want to do so every time he goes past it. He tries to catch glimpses of whoever’s working through the windows, but his view is too clogged with clothing and knick-knacks to get any real idea of whether Bokuto is in or not.

That’s it, Tetsurou tells himself. It’s a sign. He should chill for a while. It’s not like he doesn’t have enough to do already, as his unfinished university work is piling up, and he needs to get a head start on an essay and several lab reports. It’s a sign - he’d already decided that he wouldn’t start dating until he was done with his degree, and he shouldn’t get distracted from that, not even by broad, cute, charitable guys.

So he doesn’t go in again, and the note Bokuto scribbled for him stays in his wallet, secret and safe.

*

There’s a Starbucks up the street from Tetsurou’s apartment complex that does his favourite drink, and always has a table near an outlet for him to steal. It becomes his haunt as exams near, because it’s quicker to go to the counter for his sugar and caffeine rush than to leave his apartment every time. The staff know him by name, which is a little embarrassing, but it means they’ll watch his stuff when he occasionally has to run home for a forgotten textbook or notepad.

Tetsurou finds it easy to study amidst the soft bustle and chatter of the coffee shop, and he doesn’t look up when the door bell signals that people enter, nor when they leave. He’s absorbed in his own world of frantic, intense studying, and when somebody sits down on the other side of his table, he starts to dismiss them before he looks up and jumps over his skin.

“Hey!” Bokuto beams at him. “Is it cool if I sit here? Do you remember me? You came into my shop, it’s just across the street and down a bit!”

“I - I remember,” Tetsurou stammers, shuffling his papers to make space for him. “Hey. Bokuto, right?”

“You remember!” Bokuto’s smile grows even brighter. “What’s your name? You never told me.”

“Oh - oh, it’s Kuroo,” Tetsurou says. “Sorry.”

“Kuroo,” Bokuto repeats. “Nice to meet you! Did you ever stop by the shop again?”

“A couple of times,” Tetsurou hedges. He doesn’t want to look too eager, but he also doesn’t want it to come across like he doesn’t care, or - god forbid - that he’s  _ uncharitable.  _ “I didn’t see you, though.”

Bokuto sighs, losing some of his shine. “Yeah, Yukie told me off for always moving around and taking over the register and giving stuff away… apparently that’s ‘bad business,’ or something. But we’re not a business! We’re a charity!”

“I don’t think she’s all wrong,” Tetsurou says before he can stop himself. “I was pretty surprised when you gave me that offer.”

“But you’re cute,” Bokuto says, pouting, “I wanted you to come back.”

Tetsurou blinks. “Ah…”

“Anyway!” Bokuto springs up. “I still need to get my coffee - do you want anything?”

“I’m good,” Tetsurou says, still taken aback.

“Okay!”

He watches as Bokuto walks to the counter, ordering and moving along to wait for his drink. Tetsurou knows he should go back to his books, still spread open on the table in front of him, but he can’t take his eyes away from the lines of Bokuto’s body, visible through his t-shirt. His hair is still that odd mess of black and white, and it still really works for him. Bokuto looks back at him, catching his eye and grinning, and Tetsurou recoils, dropping his gaze to his textbook with a hot flush crawling up his neck.

He doesn’t look up until Bokuto sits down with his new, extravagant drink and starts to speak again. “It’s cool that I sit here, right? I don’t wanna disturb you, you look like you’re pretty deep in some kinda hell.”

Tetsurou sighs, closing his book and looking at him. “No, it’s fine. I need a break.”

Bokuto offers him a smile. “Glad to hear it! You study biology or something, right? Something difficult.”

“You remember?” Tetsurou asks, surprised. “Yeah. I’m in my fourth year, so I’m graduating soon.”

“You must be working hard, then,” Bokuto comments.

“Not as hard as I should be.” Tetsurou sighs again. “I’m behind on a bunch of stuff… nothing you wanna hear about, I’m sure.”

Bokuto hums, sipping at his frappuccino. “I’m impressed you’re still going. I studied - I used to study sports science… but I couldn’t hack it.”

Tetsurou looks at him. The lines of Bokuto’s face are uncertain, a few strands of loose hair falling in his face to blur his bright eyes. “What happened?”

“I - do you know about what the shop does? It’s for - I mean, I inherited it, so it used to be… a jewelry shop or whatever, but now it’s a charity shop. And we raise money to train teachers to be better equipped when they encounter learning difficulties in their teaching. It’s still very all or nothing, you know? Which is good, that the kids who are struggling from the beginning get help, but it means that a lot of things go unnoticed.”

“Right.”

“So - ‘cause I got by, and I kinda stumbled onto decent ways to go about things? So my ADHD and dyscalculia never got noticed until I was in university, and by then… It got real overwhelming, real fast.”

“Oh.” Tetsurou looks at him, sympathetic. “That sounds awful.”

Bokuto shrugs. “It certainly wasn’t great. And if I’d had teachers who knew what to look for, I might have had to go through that, you know? And I don’t want anyone else to have to, either. I want everyone to have the chances they deserve. So that’s what we’re working for.”

“That’s… really honourable.” Tetsurou feels silly, his words empty and unhelpful, but Bokuto smiles like he appreciates them.

“Thank you. So you take care of yourself, too, huh? Don’t burn out!”

Tetsurou’s lips quirk. “Thanks,” he says, and the conversation takes a turn for the lighter. Bokuto teases him, gently at first and then more cutting as Tetsurou dishes it out in kind, and Tetsurou savours every time he can get Bokuto to laugh, even when it goes into the dozens.

Bokuto finally finishes his drink, snorting with amusement around the straw, and looks at Tetsurou with dancing eyes. “I should probably let you go back to studying, huh,” he says, and reality runs into Tetsurou like a freight train, making him slump.

“Yeah… I still have a lot to do.”

“Cool.” Bokuto nods, shrugging his jacket back on. “So, hey - uh, please say this has been a date, yeah? Or am I reading into things? ‘Cause you’re a really cool dude, and I like spending time with you, and you didn’t seem super offended when I called you cute, so…”

Tetsurou laughs, taken by surprise. “Sure,” he says. “It’s been a date.”

“Great!” Bokuto grins, wide and brilliant, and he comes around the table to give Tetsurou a hug. He’s warm, and solid, and Tetsurou  _ definitely _ doesn’t mind the idea of hugging him again in the future. “Lemme give you my mail, okay, and then we’ll go for dinner sometime? You look like you need to eat more.”

“I eat enough,” Tetsurou huffs, although he knows the effect is ruined by his smile.

“Better, then,” Bokuto says, scrawling his email onto Tetsurou’s coffee napkin. “Here. Drop me a line.”

“I will.” Tetsurou takes the napkin, folding it carefully.

“And come by the shop! We need the business.” Bokuto gives him one last smile before he walks out the door, bell ringing softly to signal his exit.

Tetsurou looks after him for a long time, unable to get the smile off his face, clean napkin held neatly and deliberately between his fingers.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading! i'm on [tumblr](http://tivruskis.tumblr.com) & [twitter](http://twitter.com/tivruskis)


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